Until about five years or so ago, I occasionally wrote business stories for this paper and I often found myself in soon-to-open food businesses or restaurants speaking with eager new entrepreneurs.

There was a period of a few years there when I had to bite my tongue during many of these interviews. It was during the recession and people were still opening restaurants — just about the riskiest business you can possibly dream up. I just wanted to ask people (and sometimes did), "Who gave you money for this? Surely not a bank!"

And it was usually funded by a young guy's parents' retirement money or by a couple's second mortgage on the house or their kids' college fund. But upbeat I remained, despite my skepticism.

"Yeah," I would say to myself, "say goodbye to that money."

Something has changed in the way we finance our dreams, however. Now, we don't have to go to work all our lives to save up enough money to have our "dream business," or work a full-time job while running our restaurant in order to get through the lean time; and we don't even need to get a small business loan.

Why?

Because a guy raised $55,000 to make potato salad for the first time through Kickstarter.

Right. We don't need any of that sort of traditional funding for our dreams because our friends and neighbors or just a bunch of folks on social media are going to pay for it. It's all about community now. crowdfund my dream, won't you? And why not? Social media should be good for something more than pictures of cute cats or otters.

The Potato Salad Guy is Zack Danger Brown, and his Kickstarter campaign taught us a lot about crowdfunding.

He originally asked for $10, saying, "Basically I'm just making potato salad. I haven't decided what kind yet." He got more than $55,000.

Now he will "say your name out loud while making the potato salad," as he promised 6,911 backers, and 3,330 contributors will get a bite of the potato salad.

It was a joke. It was Brown's little Internet joke. Some people — many people — got the joke and gave a few bucks just to see what would happen, or to be a part of this satirical look at crowdfunding. The result is that Brown will fulfill the commitment he made to donors, but he'll also give a significant portion of the remaining money to hunger charity nonprofit The Columbus Foundation to, as he says, help the greater good.

Oh, and he's also launching a company to help spread humor and joy around the world.

He has been talking in the media about this experience, and in an op-ed piece on cnbc.com he offered one piece of advice to those seeking to crowdfund a project: "think about what you have to offer the world" instead of approaching the Internet as though it is "a bottomless pit of cash."

Brown says fund-raising campaigns have to provide value. And he says, crowdfunding works because "people want to be included."

That all makes sense to me. We want to be a part of helping someone be successful, especially if we believe in what that entrepreneur, inventor or artist is offering. Even if we only give $3, we can be a part of it all. And that, of course, is true in our own community.

Just about every day it seems I get an e-mail or a Facebook post about a crowdfunding project. And while I have my own financial struggles, I sometimes scrape together $10 or $20 to help — but only if I think that the project is for the greater good. Because frankly, sometimes I just think, "I'd like to start a business too, but I'm not going to beg for money to do it."

As Brown says, "The Internet isn't an ATM."

There are many crowdfunding Web sites and organizations out there.

Kickstarter is one of the biggest and first, helping people raise money for creative projects of many kinds.

The whole model is nothing new in general. For centuries, artists, writers and craftspeople have offered subscriptions to help fund their work or have found patrons. The subscribers get a perk, and that's how it works. With Kickstarter, those seeking funds set a goal and offer perks at different funding levels. If they don't reach the goal in a certain time period, the project isn't funded.

Some recent Kickstarter campaigns in our area include one for The Kitchen Cinq, a documentary about five local chefs, which did not get funded (although I hope they restart that one). Beara Irish Brewing in Portsmouth had a successful campaign back in August and exceeded its $9,000 goal to help start the business; it launched another one to raise $30,000 more. That goal was not reached, but it's a good brewery and I hope they succeed.

Then we have Tributary Brewing opening in Kittery, Maine, by the renowned brewer Tod Mott.

It met its $65,000 goal and is soon to open. What a boon for the beer world. Everyone's excited about that and about being a part of it.

MEat, the butcher in Kittery, opened thanks, in part, to its $50,000 Kickstarter campaign back in April.

Right now, you can help get the Rusty Hammer in Portsmouth back up and running. While Ryan and Crystal Cronin (who also own Googies and Portsmouth Provisions) have already done a ton of renovations, they're looking to a community that loves the Hammer to help meet their $60,000 goal.

Filmmaker Jay Childs has been working for more than a year on a documentary called "Arthur vs. Arthur," about the Market Basket saga — he's also looking for funding to continue.

A few more cool projects came in as I was writing this: Cookies and Beer, a fun project from local man Brian Smestad, who launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund his business creating sweet and savory cookies that pair with beer. And they'll be delivered! Go to www.cookiesandbeer.com. (He also has a great story about how he came to this idea.)

Off the food topic but one I can really get behind is helping local musician Chris Klaxton release not one but two debut albums. He's an amazing musician and because I pledged, Al Mead, artist and mixologist at the Black Birch will tell me two jokes (plus I get the albums). Just search for Christ Klaxton on Kickstarter.

But Kickstarter isn't the only fund-raising Web site out there. We also have GoFundMe.com, which covers many personal fund-raising projects, from businesses to raising money for those in need for medical expenses and scholarships. Even if the goal is not met, you still get the funds. Right now, GoFundMe has a campaign for 94-year-old Market Basket employee Arthur St. John, and it's already successfully raised the funds to cover a full year of his salary.

And there are more. Indiegogo.com also brings dreams to life, including those of Stone Brewing, which has already raised almost $1.5 million for its "not a fundraising campaign." Instead, they're throwing an exclusive "pre-sales" event to tie into their announcement of opening new breweries in Berlin, Germany, and somewhere in the eastern United States. To raise money, they're selling a yet-to-be created collaboration brews.

There are also now specific genres of crowdfunding sites, like Foodiecrowndfunding.com, where I contributed to the campaign for Weft and Warp Leatherworks because Erik Desjarlais makes great knife rolls and I want him to be able to keep doing it.

Or how about Honeyfund.com, which can help a couple fund their honeymoon?

I sometimes wonder about some of these campaigns, like when they're from an already long-established company or a big Hollywood star — sometimes it seems like they're asking for too much money or haven't done the work, or maybe they haven't convinced me they're contributing to the greater good. But I still look and sometimes give. I want new food businesses and restaurants and breweries to succeed, and I want to be part of a community that works together to help these businesses, inventors and artists.

I recently gave just a little bit of money for local artist Jocelyn Toffic and her daughter to experience an artist residency in Iceland for a month. Not only did she get to work on her art, but I was able to help her daughter have a month in Iceland with her Mom! I just received my reward in the mail — a lovely watercolor from the artist. Now I can hang that and remember that I helped her with a dream, and she can continue to create her wonderful paintings, for our greater good.

The Dish:

Fine artists Michael Palmer, Christopher Volpe and Michael Walek have created three original works of art using Adirondack chairs as their canvasses. The chairs will be auctioned off to benefit York Land Trust at the fourth annual "From the Ground Up!" fresh catch benefit dinner and auction from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. There will be a patio reception and a four-course dinner with local lobster, produce, beer and wine. Once again, this year's event will celebrate community conservation with local farmers and fishermen in partnership with When Pigs Fly restaurant and guest chefs. And what a lineup! Rob Marking from When Pigs Fly, Ben Hasty from Thistle Pig, Gerry Bonsey from the York Harbor Inn, Jason Miller from St. Joe's Coffee, Evan Hennessey from Stages at One Washinton, Jennifer Scism from Good to Go, Jake Smith from The Black Birch, and Susan Tuveson from Acorn Kitchen! The cost is $150 per person, and all proceeds go to support the York Land Trust's efforts to conserve lands of ecological, historic, scenic, agricultural and educational significance in the greater York, Maine, area for the benefit of all. Go to www.yorklandtrust.org to purchase tickets.

Rachel Forrest is a former restaurant owner who lives in Exeter and Austin, Texas. Her column appears Thursdays in Go&Do. Her restaurant review column, Dining Out, appears Thursdays in Spotlight magazine. She can be reached by e-mail at rachel.forrest@localmediagroupinc.com.